Echidna

Numbat #2

I decided to build a printing press simply because printing presses are very, very expensive. Even the ones that are small with a  hand lever to squish the print are around $500+.

I only had Grade 8 wood work behind me and confidence to just give something a try I set myself the weekend long task at constructing the press. Of course having never done something like this before means I learned a lot about the process and I certainly have not created something perfect. There are certainly a couple things that I would like to change but there is no hurry as the press does make some nice prints. And at a cost around $180 I can't complain.

One of the significant problems I had was getting the bolts tight enough so that the metal upright bars would not slide down. In the image below you can see that I added a metal bracket to keep them propped up.

The second problem I had was getting the bungee cords on top of the wooden beam. (My husband had to lever them over with a screw driver). The other problem I had with them is the printing, they are not even. I want to change them to springs. Also they are not tight enough so the jack doesn't go all the way back in. However, for that problem I simple turn the print around after the first press and press it a second time.

Overall I'm happy with the press, just need to make a few adjustments